


kamote's LL miscellany

by kamote



Category: Love Live! School Idol Project, Love Live! Sunshine!!
Genre: F/F, do i really have to tag everyone i mean, not in chronological writing order, see what happened here is sometimes i write stuff but also not really, the t rating is just in case really not much yet warrants it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-11
Updated: 2017-12-22
Packaged: 2018-09-16 18:45:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 4,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9285143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kamote/pseuds/kamote
Summary: ficlets? shorts? drabbles? not sure, but here are a bunch of them(usually crossposts from my tumblr, but u never know)





	1. real sleepy kotomaki (1k)

**Author's Note:**

> characters by chapter from most to least significant:
> 
> Ch1: kotori, maki  
> Ch2: umi, eli  
> Ch3: chika, riko  
> Ch4: dia, mari, kanan  
> Ch5: dia, mari, kanan  
> Ch6: you, chika, (riko)  
> Ch7: nozomi, nico, eli  
> Ch8: kanan, mari, dia

The door doesn’t click shut. Kotori nudges it with her heel, a hand on the wall to steady herself. It’s dark.

Her eyes are so blurry she can’t read the LED clock hanging on the wall across from her, so she tries to recall what the clock said on the train. 11:05? Something like that. It couldn’t have been much later since then.

Kotori blinks, grumbles blankly, and shambles over to her roommate’s desk with dragging footsteps. The lamp shines right on Maki’s face, yet she seems sound asleep hunched over with her head rested on her forearms and her hair in her face. It’s cute, but it won’t really do.

“Maki-chan,” Kotori mumbles, gently rocking Maki by her shoulders. “Maki-chan. You fell asleep on your desk again.”

Maki groans, then flinches at the light in her face and retreats into her own arms. “You’re back,” she says.

“I’m back,” Kotori says. “But Maki-chan, I know you have to keep your grades up, but you really shouldn’t let this turn into a habit. You’ve been doing this three days straight. Please go to bed.”

“You’re’n t’talk,” Maki slurs.

“What?"

Clumsily, but quickly enough to make Kotori take a step back, Maki gets up from her desk and faces her. Her hair is still a mess, and her eyes are half-lidded, but her eyebrows are furrowed. Is she grumpy or genuinely upset? “You’re one to talk,” she repeats, prodding at Kotori’s chest. “Whatta’ you been doing the whole day?”

“I was… with Umi-chan and Honoka-chan,” Kotori says. “There are two subjects that Honoka-chan is really dragging behind with and we need to help her if–”

“See?” Maki says. “You’re out there spending the whole day helping Hanayo… Honoka… whatever, helping out, but how are you doing with your Japanese Literature class? The one you’ve been fussing quietly to yourself about since Saturday?”

Kotori’s shoulders tense up. “I-It’s not that big a problem,” she says, waving it off. “I mean, compared to Honoka-chan’s situation–”

“S’not _about_  Honoka,” Maki says before slipping into a pause. She uses it to shake the sleep out of her eyes, blinking until they’re clear enough for her to actually look at Kotori. “You can help her, I don’t really care, but you have to remember yourself, got it? If you get burned out I’ll…” She yawns. “…I’ll get mad.”

Neither of them speak for a while after that. They’re both tired, and the drowsy rasp in Maki’s voice never really vanished throughout her light scolding, but it doesn’t detract from her point. The weight in Kotori’s chest seems to sink deeper; she feels her worries prickle at her breath more than before, though–

“Did you hear me?” Maki says, putting something like a slap on Kotori’s shoulder. “Kotori. Hey.”

Well, at least she’s won’t pretend it away this time. “Sorry,” Kotori says. “I’ll do that. Thanks for looking out for me, Maki-chan.”

“No duh I’m looking out for you,” Maki says. “Since you won’t…” A long yawn cuts her off from whatever else she might’ve wanted to say. Maki returns from it with a tired groan. “And another thing. I wasn’t studying.” She swings her arm toward the table and hands–it’s a bit of a shove with how sloppy it is–Kotori the paper she was sleeping on.

Kotori scans it. It’s Maki’s handwriting, all right, sharp, efficient print in blue ink, but… “Is… Is this a cheat sheet?”

“No,” Maki says. “You can’t use it to cheat. First of all, it’s too big to hide, and second, it’s… too big to hide, but otherwise it’s the same. All the notes you need for the test are there, super condensed, based on your notebook, and Umi’s, and Nico’s, and whatever I can remember about it from wherever. It’s not my subject, and I tried to make my handwriting passable for this late at night, but it’d help me if I had it, so… I’unno. There. Your test’s in the afternoon, so I’ll help you cram just this once.” 

It shakes some of the sleep out of Kotori’s mind. She feels like gawking at Maki with a breath of awe and the biggest smile that could break through her tired demeanor, or maybe hopping in place while ‘thank you’s on the verge of becoming incomprehensible squeals spilled from her mouth, but she can’t do either or anything like them.

Maki falls forward, her jaw just barely catching on the juncture between Kotori’s neck and shoulders, limp and only upright because of Kotori’s tenuous grip around her torso.

“M-Maki-chan?”

Kotori feels Maki’s weight shift a little. “Look, ‘m sorry, but I’m real sleepy. No more walking, or talking. You want me in bed, you bring me there.”

“Wh-what? But, Maki-chan, you’re–”

It isn’t any use. She’s already snoring into Kotori’s ears.

Kotori sighs through a little smile, and makes her way over to Maki’s bed, taking care that Maki’s shoes don’t scrape too harshly on the floor or that she doesn’t bump into anything along the way. Along the way she has to adjust her grip twice, and when they finally arrive at the bed, moving Maki into a comfortable position was such a struggle that by the end all she could do was roll over and collapse beside her.

She feels around for the flashlight that Maki used sometimes to skim her books over when she remembered something just before falling asleep, and shines it on the notes she had been given. The paper’s creased a bit, but everything is still clear and neat.

The corner of the paper has a little note–the only thing written in pencil. ‘don’t make me do this again’

Kotori hums and puts the flashlight and the paper away on the nightstand. As she thinks to herself that okay, she won’t, she presses her lips on Maki’s hair, as a little gesture of gratitude that Maki would probably resist otherwise.

Now she has to go back to her bed on the other side of the room. Her pillow is there, but it’s so far, and Maki’s pillow is pretty soft, too, actually…


	2. get it they're stormed-in lovers (400)

Eli goes over to Umi’s house to work on their duet song. The weather for the day until then had been fine, and the summer afternoon sun lingered late into the day as it does near the solstice. But it had been too calm.

Now, at 9 o’clock at night, the wind howls, rain hammers against the windows and lightning splits the air in half to let the thunder roll into the room. It’s difficult to concentrate like this, but Umi remains a pillar of obstinacy upon which Eli can lean on, with whom Eli can curb the nervous jitters in her spine. Umi says nothing when Eli leaves for a glass of water and returns to sit beside her rather than across as she had been prior. With Umi’s parents away for something work-related, the house is empty aside from them.

It is then that Umi brings up that Eli can’t go home in this weather. Eli waves it off, chuckling. Staying at Umi’s for the night isn’t a bad deal, really. The house is spacious, and the status of the Sonoda family has a place in every piece of furniture and decor. The simple architecture is trustworthy against the storm, too. Eli doesn’t mind.

A sharp crack of thunder. Darkness and cold flood the room.

Eli latches onto Umi’s shoulders immediately, and then settles for a grasp around Umi’s arm when she leads them both out of the room. Bafflingly, Umi is still talking about song lyrics as they shuffle down the pitch-black hallway, even when it’s painfully obvious that Eli is in no condition to talk about the beach, or heart-swaying perfumes, or yearnings that come from the rhythms of the waves–

The light returns with mechanical rumble. They’re in the generator room.

As if tossing the song aside, Umi asks if Eli is okay. Eli nods at her, a little dazed, still shaking the last thoughts of a dance in the sunset out of her mind.

Umi asks again, and when Eli finds her words this time, Umi nods, and leads them again back to their room.

They finish the song with no further trouble, and sleep soundly.

It’s a night they don’t really care to tell anyone about, but Nozomi, cunning as she is, learns about it eventually. At the end of Eli’s recounting, Nozomi has on a strange smile.

“Well,” she says, “I guess you could call that experience… EliUminating.”


	3. chika and riko's balcony romance (250)

Chika’s phone vibrates. It’s a text–nay, tonight, it’s  _the_ text–from Riko. She’s already shambling to her window as she reads it. ‘ _I’m outside.’_

When she reaches the window, she opens it eagerly, but also gently, to keep from disturbing Tochiman’s guests. There’s a cold evening wind that hits and wraps around her exposed arms, but Riko is nowhere to be seen. 

“Riko-chaaan,” she calls in a shouted whisper. “Riko-chaaa–Oh, there you are.” 

Chika finds Riko’s head poked out from behind her balcony boundaries. She’s looking at Chika with a familiar, if superficial, stare of disdain that Chika’s started to grow fond of. “Chika-chan, this is kind of stupid and desperate.”

“Then let me be stupid and desperate,” Chika says. “Come on. Where are _the goods?”_

Riko’s frown stretches at the name, but she nonetheless pulls out a takeout bowl of the beef brisket noodle soup Chika had her order. 

Upon seeing it, Chika’s eyes widen and start to water. Finally, she can have her late night Chinese delivery without it passing through the fuss of inn business. She wipes a tear away. “Romeo…”

“Romeo wasn’t the one on the balcony,” Riko says. “Hurry–I’m halfway through my order and it’s getting cold.”

Getting the bowl from Riko is a cinch, of course. But the disposable chopsticks she tosses to Chika instead bounce off her face and fall into the shadowy depths below.


	4. setter dia meets mari (450, AU)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> volleyball au...... Yea

“Dia, this is Mari! She rides horseback.”

Ah, Mari. Dia knows (that Kanan should know that she knows) Ohara Mari, the transfer student from the States who never really talked much in or out of class. The one that always seemed to be ahead of her academically even if it looked like she watched clouds and birds out the window more than half the day. The one Kanan had been actively hunting down after classes recently.

Now Dia knows why. “I trust you, Kanan-san,” she says, “so tell me – How does horseback riding make her appeal to me as another spiker?”

“Make a fist for me,” Kanan says. Dia does so, albeit slowly and as she glances at Mari’s mildly-interested expression before her, then Kanan holds her wrist and makes Dia’s knuckles connect with Mari’s abdomen.

Hm. The resistance is… palpable.

“What is this?” Dia says. “Why did you just make me do that?”

“Don’t pretend we couldn’t see your eyes get wide back there.” Like an idiot, Kanan makes Dia bump Mari’s abdomen a few more times. “You feel that? They’re abs, Dia. From horseback riding.”

“I know what they are.”

“No, not ‘abdominal musculature’ like some kind of boring old physician. _Abs._ Like mine.”

“Kanan-san, I don’t care how good you think she’ll look in a jersey. What’s important is whether or not she can spike well.”

“You don’t spike in the air, Dia – you wouldn’t know!” Kanan kind of tosses control of Dia’s arm back to her. “But they’re important for adding power to a spike! Also, look how tall she is!” She gestures to the five centimeter difference between herself and Mari. “And she can _jump,_ too – punch her thighs if you want–”

“I need no further convincing,” Dia says, holding a hand up for Kanan to stop. “I told you, I trust your judgement. However, Mari-san herself…”

Mari isn’t standing straight in front of Dia, with her weight on one leg, and her attention seemed to have quietly drifted away from her and Kanan a little earlier. Dia clears her throat meaningfully to call it back. It barely makes Mari look. “Kanan-san wouldn’t have brought you here if you didn’t agree to join us, but are you willing to learn how to spike?” Dia expects the usual, short, one-word reply, but–

“It depends,” Mari says, giving Dia an odd smile. “Are you going to coach me? I don’t know if I can perform so well under _your_ tutelage, Miss Setter.”

Dia’s brow twitches. There’s more to Mari than she thought. Seems they’re both due to learn quite a bit more about each other on court.


	5. they gffs (34)

"Kanan!" Dia shouts to the upstairs. "Come down, Mari is back with cake! And remember to put a shirt on!"

"Actually," Mari says, "you know it's totally fine by me if she doesn't, right?"


	6. magic (900)

Often, Yō likened herself to a boat where Chika was the wind in her sails.

No one made her  _go_ like Chika. Life when Chika was around was in constant forward motion, and Yō fell in love with how she’d get swept away in those bursts of impulse and adventure that followed Chika like the devil itself. 

Yō was convinced that she’d never find another friend who’d yell her name as loudly and race to her across campus so quickly on the first school day, or who’d be awake with her past midnight to stare at ceilings that disappeared into the dark as they told clumsy ghost stories that rather kept them up with muffled snickering than fear, or who’d have a smile so bright and warm and contagious that it felt like a gift, something Yō should be (was, is) grateful to see, moreso _cause._

And she was so, _so_ grateful whenever Chika smiled sunshine around Yō, because at the same time, Chika was still wind to her. Everywhere at once, but untouchable, like if she wasn’t careful Chika and all the magic she was would slip between her fingers, past her notice and disappear to someplace she couldn’t follow without her.

Yō was trying to match before she even realized it. Yō Watanabe became smart and clever and strong and talented and popular--she was anything and everything anyone would need to be. That was her try at magic. She hoped that being able to play any role Chika would need to make her smile would help Yō catch up, keep from being left in the dust and unmoving in the ocean.

But she never forgot that it was all for her. Chika was a blessing she’d relish while she was there, and Yō just hopes she won’t leave too soon.

* * *

Becoming a small superhero and all the necessary stuff meant paying attention, and despite her rough-and-tumble, carpe diem nature she had an eye for detail and an impeccable knack for seeing what’s going on, from high dives to kitchens to dances to people. 

And she tries not to look too much for respect of privacy and boundaries and such, but it doesn’t escape her notice when the people around her begin to slowly, 

surely

click.

Or maybe “click” wasn’t the right word. They did call it chemistry-- there were catalysts involved, reactions, and in the end none of the parties involved were quite the same.

Like Mari, that strange girl who said “Hi” from a helicopter and bought the school and seemed utterly unflappable even if electricity seemed to surround her. She was the last person Yō expected to watch break down, and even if she did bounce back, she and Dia and Kanan weren’t the same. It wasn’t Yō’s place and she didn’t look to closely, but she thought she saw old wounds there that they’d just started allowing to heal.

And Yoshiko, who was a little bit of a mess inside and didn’t know where to go, had stopped and begun to rebuild herself from the bottom up. Chika, Hanamaru, Ruby, _Aqours_ gave her a new start, and now she’s opening up to people, more honest than before, and Yohane isn’t just a burden she wants to drop and leave behind. Right in front of them, she’s changing, growing, becoming stronger.

But the person Yō watches do all this and more is, of course, Chika, who smiled and laughed and broke down and got up and became more and more and more. Yō saw dozens of other catalysts and instances of amazing people-chemistry over her life, but those that she had _felt_ revolved around Aqours, and Aqours’ heart was Chika, untouchable Chika. And while Aqours moved forward with Chika, it wasn’t what moved her, and it wasn’t what made her change and allowed her to keep moving forward.

It wasn’t Aqours, and it wasn’t Yō either. In the end, the driving force that helped Chika up when she was down and pushed her forward when she couldn’t move was Riko.

Chika said it best--Riko was a miracle, and if Chika was the fuel in the machine that was their idol group then Riko was the last damn bolt that kept it running and not falling apart. Or maybe she was the ignition, since without her, Chika wouldn’t have been able to shine like she did. Or maybe she was controls...

Yō realized then that Riko was just what Chika needed for this dream, and she didn’t need to be anything more.

Riko was a miracle, and the one role Yō couldn’t play, because she didn’t have that connection to μ's or learn piano or synchronize with Chika on a deeper level than high-fives and well-timed jokes. She wasn’t from Tokyo. She couldn’t bring Chika to where she wanted to go.

She couldn’t make Chika smile like the first cracks of light after the rain.

So all Yō could do was put her faith in Riko. Riko would let Chika shine like any light she wanted to.

Chika smiles more thanks to Riko now. She’s magic, and Riko is their miracle, and they’re the wind in the sails of Aqours. 

They’re still all here, and Chika still moves them forward. Yō still gets swept away. She’s still in love.

But she feels somehow that the one who disappeared was her.


	7. culture fest feat. u's 3rd years (300)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> nico and nozomi are in the same class and separate from eli right and i'm sure they'd do some haunted house crap for their culture fest So Obviously,

“Okay, okay I think it’s on right. Hand me the mirror.”

“Sorry, no mirrors here. Just turn around and I’ll tell you how you look.”

Grumbling for no real reason, Nico spun and flashed Nozomi her sharpest frown. Nozomi tilted her head forward into her fist in thought, stared at Nico for a few moments, and snorted.

“I wish I had my camera,” she said.

Nico’s shoulders sunk. “Really? Do I look stupid? Usually that’s the kind of thing you like putting on–”

“No, no, you look  _horrific,_ trust me, I’m the expert,” Nozomi said, her grin not a tooth narrower. “And actually, it’s not really  _you_ I want to record, but E–”

_“Nozomi? Nico?”_

Nico gasped in a hoarse, ugly way. “Why is she here this early?” she whispered. “We’re not even open yet!”

“Elichi would never enter a haunted house in business of her own accord,” Nozomi said coolly. “Why do you think we’re getting you dressed up so early?”

“Not early enough! Hand me my mask, woman, my mask! And kill the lights!”

The curtains shifted. “Nico? Is that you–”

Nico only had her mask half on when she turned, but she witnessed Eli draw in a sharp breath before squeaking and crumpling to the ground in a limp heap. As she gawked at the body of their victim on the floor, Nozomi broke into a fit of giggling and chortling.

“Oh boy, I hope it’s Kotori-chan’s shift at the nurse’s office today. She’d hate for anyone else to hear about this.”

“What was that!” Nico said, extending her arms in Eli’s direction. “How did she just! Pass out!”

“It’s because you make such a hideous little goblin creature, Nicocchi,” Nozomi said. “And you totally just  _made_ this culture festival for me. Hey, you up to scare her again later when I have my camera?”

“You’re despicable,” Nico said. Then she glanced at Eli and allowed herself a smirk. “But if she wakes up early enough, I guess I’m game.”


	8. dia, a frog (900, AU)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fairy tale mashup au;; this is actually one of my favorite au's that i haven't written for enough. i want to get back to it sometime heh

Rowboat rides should be Kanan’s second sanctuary of mind next to the underwater. Today, maybe not anymore.

“You realize, right?” says Mari, who sits across from her. “Only true love’s kiss will save Princess Dia, but it’s not like you were already in love with her before she was a—“

“She’s not a frog, Mari,” Kanan says. “She’s a princess trapped in a frog’s body.” She’s not sure if it’s because Mari’s a being of vast, immeasurable cosmic power that she makes so light of Dia’s situation, or if it’s because Kanan’s a simple fisher girl that she feels a little more gravity about it, or both, but she’s getting tired of trying to get Mari to treat it seriously.

Mari  _takes_ it seriously, surely enough, since she’s still with them on this little quest and she’s probably saved them both from danger more times than Kanan can count with her fingers, but she’s a weird, backwards case of words not matching up to her actions. Not a problem for Kanan, but a groomed princess like Dia?

In Dia’s own words, whispered under the moon of an honest night,  _“Aside from the dance, another thing I fantasize about more and more lately for when I get my body back is punching her sparkling, incorporeal face for half of everything she passes off as a ‘joke.’”_

Kanan holds back a sigh. How frustrating it must be for a frog to wish to punch a specter so strongly.

“See?” Mari says. “Even you think she’s a frog. You’ll have to fall in love with a frog.”

“S-Stop that!” Kanan says. “And she’s  _not_ just a frog! Even you tell me things aren’t what they appear to be. Dia’s a princess.”

“First of all, it’s not good to generalize illusions, transformations and things being other things. Knights and wizards and sailors alike get killed from that kind of thinking. Second, Dia was a princess when she had opposable thumbs. Now she’s a frog, and an uneducated one at that. Do you know how many poisonous spiders I had to tip her off eating when I saw her little froggy eyes sparkle at them?”

Kanan looks away and frowns at the mention of spiders. “Stop. Stop.”

“Did you hear that?” Mari continues anyway, cupping a hand around her ear. “Snap! One less fly in the world. I hope it was crispy.”

_“Ugh.”_ With a loud groan, Kanan lifts her oar out of the water and swings it through Mari’s glowing golden torso. “She’s just doing what she has to to survive.”

“That’s absolutely right, so I hope you’re ready to smooch that mouth.”

“Oh. Yeah. That reminds me.” Kanan points at Mari with the end of her oar now that they’re at the center of the lake and there’s no need to row. “You’re making some pretty hard assumptions that  _I_ will be Dia’s true love.”

Whatever strange little high Mari was in ebbs away, and she leans on the side of the boat, idly tracing starry hearts onto the surface of the water with her free hand. “Yeah? What, you think you have competition?”

“Mari, I’m a fisher girl who talks to dolphins and alligators,” Kanan says as she leans back. “Dia’s a princess who’s stormed a cursed castle. I don’t think I’m even a competitor, especially compared to…”

“Oh, that other blonde?” Mari snickers. “You’re both so cute I wish  _I_ could kiss you both. But yeah, maybe I let slip a bit too much.”

Kanan can’t help how her heartbeat picks up. Mari probably knows about it, too. “Let what slip?”

“Ooh, sneaky sneaky Kanan,” Mari says, flashing a grin like the sun. “Sorry, but you both will have to find out for yourselves. Fairy laws, you know?”

Both of Kanan’s hands fly up to cover her face. She heaves and lets a sigh out into the evening air. “I think I’d rather be talking to seagulls about now.”

“Ouch, okay, I’ll give you a hint, you poor thing. Come here.”

Mari leans toward Kanan, and Kanan leans toward Mari. Whispering things into Kanan’s ear is probably useless as far as the ears of whatever fairy superiors Mari has are concerned, but Kanan’s curious and tired and curious.

“You’re both more than halfway there,” Mari says, “if you know what I mean…”

“I’m… I’m not sure I do?”

“Well!” Mari shrugs with her arms and shoulders as she backs away. “That’s out of my hands! I have to go now. Dearest, Darlingest Dia draws near and I’d hate to intrude.”

“Hey! Mari!”

Kanan reaches forward, but the last of Mari’s light leaves the lake before her fingers can phase through her. Damn.

She feels a bit alone now, but she sees a small hint of green in the water, which she reaches her oar out to. Dia climbs up, and Kanan helps her hop into the boat.

“What was she bothering you with this time?” she says, climbing onto the rim of the boat to look out at the dark expanse of the lake.

“The usual,” Kanan says. “Teasing. Maybe I give her too many openings.”

“Ugh, I swear I’ll even kick her when this is all over.” Dia pauses, probably counting to five. “…But I suppose many of the things she says shouldn’t be taken to heart. I find she can be confusing.”

Kanan looks at the same lake Dia watches, and wonders.

“Well, enough thinking,” Dia says. “Shall we enjoy the lake?”


End file.
